The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.

These calendar pages come from the rare book Calendrier Magique, which was printed in France in 1895 in a small run of 777 copies. The book blends Art Nouveau imagery with references to occult ceremonies, horoscopes, and tarot.

The larger images in the calendar are by Manuel Orazi, an Italian lithographer working in Paris who produced art for stage posters, books, and theatre sets. (His portrait of the actress Sarah Bernhardt, viewable here on the Art Appreciation Blog, is a thing of beauty.) The calendar is marked by the Art Nouveau illustrator’s love for the flowing, abundant, tangled look of natural objects.

“The Devil is only the symbol of Evil, as God is the symbol of Good,” de Croze writes in a signed statement on the book’s last page, lending credence to the idea that the book was meant to serve as an anthropological curiosity and a work of art, rather than a sincere handbook for occult practice.